After 18 months of getting ready, Flames lights up taste buds in Peabody Square

The newest location of the regional favorite Flames, a buffet-style Caribbean chain of restaurants, is open for business in Peabody Square, close to the MBTA’s Ashmont Station, and it’s already setting the area ablaze with Jamaican flair. 

Following an 18-month hunt for space and delays over permitting and documentation, the restaurant opened to customers on July 16 with an array of crowd-pleasers like jerk chicken, curry goat, ackee, and oxtail topping its menu.

“Every day, people, pedestrians coming through Ashmont station would come and pull on the door and ask if we were open,” said Andre Chambers, general manager of Flames. 

“Covid didn’t do us any justice. It was a very drawn-out process, but we’re here now and we’re doing well. We make sure the light stays on, we prepare the food, hire the workers, and wait for the customer to come to us,” said Chambers, who is the son of the chain’s owner, Jonathan Chambers. The eatery fills a space that was once home to a chiropractor just steps from the clock in Peabody Square.

Flames is also doing business in Randolph, on Morton Street in Mattapan, Blue Hill Avenue in Grove Hall, Huntington Avenue in Brigham Circle, as well as in Brockton and Providence.

After making adjustments to comply with permit limitations, like operating until 10 p.m. as opposed to the restaurant’s standard 11 p.m. closing time, Flames received the go-ahead from city agencies to breathe new life into a decades-vacant lot. 

“We wanted this to be a welcoming place, and, when we add restaurants to a commercial area, it becomes a more appealing destination,” said Jeanne Dasaro, executive director of Greater Ashmont Main Streets, a nonprofit that works with city officials to support the ongoing economic revitalization of the area. 

The organization monitors the commercial district that exists along the length of Dorchester Avenue, facilitating the processing and permitting of new businesses and advocating for neighborhood priorities to be reflected in new constructions, like wide sidewalks with plenty of walking space, bike lanes for multimodal transportation, and first floor retail space in residential buildings.

In the case of Flames, which has existing infrastructure in the Boston area, Greater Ashmont Main Streets joined zoning and abutters’ meetings to help the Chambers family secure approval for indoor seating. The organization also wrote about Flames on its blog, helping to push out word of its pending arrival to local neighborhood associations and community members. 

“Our organization is the shepherd for businesses in Peabody Square, so seeing the fencing come down, seeing the patio open, going in and having some jerk chicken– which is fantastic, by the way – it’s all really fulfilling,” said Dasaro, who recommends that intrepid customers try Flames’s curry goat.

“Dorchester is a behemoth neighborhood; it’s really a neighborhood with many neighborhoods, and it’s seeing a building boom,” she said. “For us, seeing our values be infused into common spaces throughout the community, not just our corner, it brings variety and vibrancy.”

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